1 held, 1 sought in 2010 slaying

A South Side man has been charged in the 2010 slaying of a Lansing man found shot and beaten in the trunk of his car in a Roseland alley, and police are seeking a second man, prosecutors said today.

Tomie Nickles, 20, was ordered held in lieu of $750,000 bail today in the slaying of Phillip Baldwin, 27, of the 18200 block of Olde Farm Road in Lansing. Nickles is serving a three-year prison sentence in an unrelated 2012 gun case, according to court records.

Baldwin was found dead in the trunk of his car in the 11100 block of South Edbrooke Avenue just before 9 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2010, according to police and prosecutors. The car had been parked in the alley early in the day, and police learned that about 3:30 a.m., Baldwin’s cell phone had been in touch with Nickles’ phone in a three-way call with another man, Deandre Martin, for whom a murder warrant was issued today, according to prosecutors and court records.

Martin lived in the block where the vehicle was found, and a witness saw Martin at the property where the vehicle was found, both the night before the shooting and the day after, prosecutors said in a hearing before Criminal Court Judge Donald Panarese.

A witness found Baldwin’s identification at Martin’s apartment, prosecutors said. After a search warrant was seved on the apartment, investigators found some of Baldwin’s blood on a carpet, and a fired bullet that matched the bullets in Baldwin’s body was found in the apartment, prosecutors said.

The only fingerprints found in Baldwin’s trunk were those of Nickles and Martin, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors did not explain the delay in charging Nickles, or the relationship of the three men.

Nickles, of the 7700 block of South Greenwood Avenue in Chicago, has been serving his prison sentence at the Shawnee Correctional Center, according to prison records.